tado° - your heating just got smart

Paul Hughes

tado° - your heating just got smart

14.11.2012

Every year, when the days get shorter and the temperature outside starts to fall, the same discussion takes place many households: how can we reduce heating costs and still keep the house nice and warm? Now the Munich-based technology start-up tado° is offering a solution to the problem.

Who hasn't experienced the classic dilemma: turn down the heating to be kind to the environment and the bank balance, but come home to a cold house? Or leave the heating on to keep the house warm and cozy, but face a large heating bill? Those with a thermostat at home can program it, but thermostats are often complicated to operate, and in case plans are changed on the spur of the moment, this outdated technology is rendered useless.

In total, the heating and air conditioning of buildings accounts for over one third of global energy consumption. “Our main motivation for developing tado° was to tackle this issue and make a significant contribution to the energy transition,” says company founder Christian Deilmann. tado° is a completely new kind of smart heating control. It works like a personal heating assistant, helping consumers to cut their heating costs by an average of 27%*. To achieve this, the temperature of the home is adjusted precisely to the behavior of the residents – in a fully automatic process.

*Beta test in winter 2011/2012. The end customers in the test made energy savings of 12-40% (compared to their heating behavior before using tado°).

The tado° solution - what makes it so smart?

Whether it's your daily journey to work or a spontaneous weekend break with the family – the tado° application on the mobile phones of the residents detects when the last person has left the house, with no user action required. A signal is then sent to the heating system to turn down the temperature. As soon as one of the residents starts to head home, tado° reacts immediately and warms up the house to the desired temperature. It also takes sleeping times into account, reducing the temperature to a lower chosen setting.

Since no two buildings are the same, tado° learns about all the significant properties of a home in just a few days. For instance, how quickly it cools down or how the sunshine influences the interior temperature. This information is used to develop control strategies that will bring about the desired temperature in the most efficient way possible. These strategies can also make use of current weather forecasts: if the sun is going to shine the next day, tado° will automatically take this information into account and heat on a lower setting.

Why tado°?

Whether you have a regular schedule or not, whether you live in an old or a modern building, with your family or on your own – with tado° you are perfectly equipped for the upcoming heating season. “tado° is our answer to the rising cost of heating and a modern, environmentally friendly lifestyle. “With the help of tado°, everyone can make a contribution to climate protection, save money, and make their home more comfortable in the process.” Founder Johannes Schwarz adds: “We were not convinced by any of the solutions available on the market. We were looking for a solution that, in terms of design and function, fits in perfectly with people's lives – not the other way around.”

Using the tado° App on a smartphone or a computer, users can keep an eye on how tado° is working for them and how their energy usage is being optimized, no matter where they are. In addition, users can decide for themselves whether to put the emphasis of this smart control system on savings or comfort. And if users want to take the wheel themselves, they can simply input a desired temperature manually – from anywhere in the world.

The sleek white tado° Box that comes with the order establishes a connection with the central heating. It can be installed by the customer in a few simple steps and is compatible with almost all boilers.

Price and availability

tado° is available immediately, and for a limited time at an introductory price of 99 euros per year. Thereby our price is far lower than the yearly savings tado° is achieving. Furthermore the tado° hardware is gratis for the first 1.000 beta customers during the now starting beta phase. With the regular reporting the user can always retrace tado°’s advantages. After one year the tado° service can be cancelled on a monthly basis for those who think that tado° is not appropriate for them.

tado° is easy to install. In addition an installation service is available for those who would prefer not to install tado° themselves.